Dogwood book sale to be held inside
Rain or shine, the Friends of the Library are guaranteed to have pleasant conditions for their annual Dogwood Festival book sale this year.
The sale will be held indoors for the first time in the Siloam Springs Public Library’s community room, according to Laura Lee Flynn, Friends of the Library committee member. The sale will be held from noon to 6 p.m. Thursday, April 27; from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, April 28; from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 29; and from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, April 30.
The Friends of the Library had just moved into their bookstore inside the new library before last year’s Dogwood Festival, and after the move they only had time to organize a small sale. This year, the organization is doing a full-scale event with close to 2,000 books up for sale, said volunteer coordinator Bettie Skelton.
Friends of the Library committee members promise the sale will be worth the walk to the new library, located at the intersection of Mt. Olive Street and Jefferson Street. There is plenty of parking across the street from the library and the air conditioned environment will give people a chance to get out of the weather.
The sale will include recent New York Times best sellers, paperback and hardback fiction, religious fiction and nonfiction books, children’s books, home-school materials, Spanish language books and large print books. Most adult books range in price from 50 cents to $2, and most children’s books range in price from 25 cents to 50 cents, said Shereen West, book store manager. There will also be a small section of vintage and rare books deeply discounted from their online suggested retail price.
On Saturday, all books in the sale area will be buy one get one free. Sunday will be a “bag-o-books” day with all sale books offered for $1 per bag of paperbacks and $2 per bag of hardbacks. The organization will also have both long and short sleeve T-shirts, aprons and book bags for sale.
The Friends of the Library use the money raised by the annual book sale and year-round bookstore to underwrite the summer reading program, by providing materials and entertainers for the series of events, Flynn said. The organization also uses the funds to buy special items for the library that are not in the regular budget, such as furniture, and to provide funds for children’s programming year-round, including the Santa at the Library program in December. The organization also supports adult book clubs, she said.
“We’re really focused on the children’s program,” Flynn said.
The Friends of the Library bookstore is open five days a week and is staffed by about 35 volunteers, Skelton said.
Buying books at the sale is a great way to help support literacy and help the environment by keeping used books out of landfills, she said.